OUR BLOG

Energy Insights, by Fairbanks Energy, examines a wide variety of topics within the energy sector. We discuss industry trends, compile the latest news, feature recent projects, highlight company updates, and give our own engineers a platform to answer questions within the field of energy conservation.

In the U.S., higher education facilities spend an average of $1.10 per square foot on electricity costs, 31% ($0.34) of which are lighting costs. In most colleges and universities, laboratory and residential buildings are the biggest energy users. At Harvard University, for example, while laboratory buildings make up only 22% of the buildings on campus, they use 49% of the total energy; residential buildings and dorms account for 18% of the university’s energy consumption.

Design and installation of LED Lighting and Building Management System by leading energy conservation provider has yielded an annual saving of more than $200,000 while securing utility incentives and rebates of more than $320,000

With near 2 billion parking spaces in the U.S., and a third of them being located in parking lots, the parking garage sector accounts for a significant amount of real estate in cities and towns nationwide. Within this market, building owners spend more than $6 billion to light their parking lots and garages. By upgrading traditional parking garage fixtures to LEDs, significant advantages can be obtained in regard to finance and safety.

As any seasoned facility manager can tell you, there are ample opportunities to reduce a company’s energy usage both inside and outside of their buildings. Production facilities, warehouses and labs often use the most power, but external areas, such as parking lots and garages, must not be overlooked. When prioritizing the energy optimization projects at your facilities, take the time to examine how these locations are performing.

The impressive reductions in operating costs and energy usage from modern LED lighting have been a catalyst for the implementation of energy efficiency initiatives across the country. New York City, one of the largest and most energy intensive areas in the U.S., is no exception.

LED lighting retrofits make a significant impact on energy intensity, usage, and efficiency in facilities at colleges and universities. Ross Fairbanks digs into the details in a piece featured at Facility Executive, featured below.

Adam Fairbanks, CEO of Fairbanks Energy, authors a piece on utilizing data center incentives for your next efficiency project. This blog post is a summarized version of the orignial article featured at Utility Post.Read the original piece here.

Any retrofit to an LED lighting solution will immediately improve efficiency and provide your facility with energy and financial savings. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is one of many industry leaders currently stating that the efficiency measure with the greatest potential impact for energy savings in the U.S. today is the widespread adoption of LED lighting.

Long before the invention of LED technology, the incandscent bulb helped to launch the era of modern lighting. Many improvements were made to incandescent bulbs over time, but researchers had still only figured out how to convert about 10% of the energy used into light. In the early 1900’s, Peter Cooper Hewitt created one of the precursors to the fluorescent lamp and this lighting solution developed from that point.